Choose for whom and with whom you work

Work for a company or client that returns a large part of the added value you produce. In addition, work with people who can increase the value of your work with their contribution. These things rise above the rest when you focus on increasing the relative benefit of your work. Focus on getting a sufficient part of the added value you produce for yourself. You have a better chance of doing this by working for yourself. Make sure that your employer or client pays primarily for the results. As an entrepreneur, don't attract too many customers. Focus on a small number of big customers. Make sure that your customers are ready to sign long contracts and focus primarily on the most important things. According to the principle of less is more, the income from a few customers is greater than from others. Never bet on just one customer.

As an employee, you must be in a workplace where people who add value are rewarded. Then you can get paid according to your results. Work in a place where you have a lot of power over your work. Only then can you focus on the work from which you and your employer will reap the greatest benefits. Choose the freedom to do your job as you see fit. If you lack freedom and have to rely on others to figure out what you can do or how to do things, you won't be able to work as efficiently as possible. Focus primarily on results, not your workload, and work in a place where getting results is the single most important thing.

Who you work with is important. Free riders or difficult people will affect your results. There are huge differences in people's work performance. The top 1% who are capable of peak performance achieve much more than the least efficient 1%. Top performers make great results even compared to mediocrity. They get more done than you think. You can learn from them and get closer to their performance by working with them. For example, in team sports, you perform better when you play with better players. When you play with the worse ones, you also become worse. Although a team is only as strong as its weakest links, they also get better when they play with better ones.

Studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of top workers. One involved thousands of employees, from mail carriers to partners in large law firms. The support was provided by John Hunter from Michigan State University and Frank Schmidt and Michael Judiesch from the University of Iowa. It compared top performers with the least efficient percent and average workers. The study found that the value of top performers increases with the increasing demands of work.

• In simple jobs, such as the professions of machine operators and office rats, those belonging to the best percent achieved three times more than the worst.

• In moderately difficult tasks, such as retail sales and mechanics, the best were twelve times more efficient than the worst percent.

• The most demanding professions, such as insurance agents, sales negotiators, doctors and lawyers, were studied by comparing the most efficient percentage with average performers. On average, the best accomplish more than two average workers.

• Those who belong to the best percent of programmers achieve the work input of almost thirteen mediocre people.
  
  
  

As you can see from the figures above, at least one study proves the claim that the most efficient employees are by far the biggest producers of net worth. Cherish their hard work. Make sure that they are paid well. Don't whine about pay equality. In practice, top performers must reap the most benefits of their effectiveness themselves. You're not a top performer if you can't find evidence of your top performance. In this case, get into their sphere of influence.

Aim to find top performers as an entrepreneur. Their results far exceed their costs. Pay them a lot because they are wanted. You can also try to look for people who have the potential to become top performers. You can get even more benefit from them compared to your costs. Top performers have their own thought patterns and have often come up with other, better ways of doing things. Don't immediately reject a person who behaves or thinks strangely about you.